USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 3
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PRESTON UNDER AUGUSTA.
thentic account. They encamped here, and hunted In I762, Samuel Pringle discovered a path leading east. He communicated this discovery to his comrades, and they all concluded to follow it. in hopes it might lead to a settlement. It led them to the Looney Creek settlement
They remained there but a short time, till they were rec- ognized as deserters, and Childers and Lindsay were arres ted. The Pringles escaped, and returned to their hunting camp. In 1764, John Simpson followed out the path they had traveled, and finding their camp, employed them to help him obtain furs. About this time the adjoining glades in Maryland began to be visited by hunters from the South Branch, which caused the Pringles to fear for their safety. They induced Simpson to remove farther west, to enjoy hunting grounds free from the intrusion of these hunters. now dividing the game with them. They left, went farther south, and again Preston had not a white man on its soil.
Some of the Indian tribes complained to the English au- thorities that the land west of Laurel Hill was being occu- pied by the white man, without being purchased from the In- dian; and, in 1763, we find a proclamation issued by the King of England against settling on any lands on the waters westward of the Alleghany mountains, and Gov. Fauquier also issued a proclamation forbidding settlements on these lands. The territory of Preston was claimed by Virginia, and placed under her jurisdiction ; and yet settlement on its soil was forbidden by the Governor, on the ground that it yet belonged to the Indians.
In 1765, Sir William Johnson's treaty with the Indians brought peace for a short space of time on the border, and the stream of emigration, once more unfettered, poured rap- idly west of the Alleghany mountains, unmindful of the King and the Governor's proclamations.
In September 1767, Mason and Dixon run their celebrated line along the northern boundary of Preston through an un- broken wilderness, and were ordered back by the Shawnees
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
and Delawares but a few miles east of where Preston and Monongalia now corner upon the said line. In this same year, Lawrence Harrison in right of George Washington, lo- cated 267 acres of land in Augusta County, embracing the site of Fort Necessity, and Washington received a land certifi- cate for it from Virginia. During this year, Governor Fau quier, one of Virginia's ablest Governors, died and was suc ceeded in 1768 by Lord Bottetourt.
In 1763, Governor Penn of Pennsylvania sent out the Rev. John Steele to notify all settlers west of the Alleghanies to remove east of the mountains. He found families on Cheat. and at the crossing of the "Little Yough," but none of thein were in Preston. It is needless to say that the settlers gave no heed to the warning. About this time, hunters from Pennsylvania and Maryland frequented the forbidden moun- tains and streams of Preston in search of game, which was very plentiful.
From all traces of early settlers that we have been enabled to find, James Clark and John Judy were the first perma nent settlers on the soil of Preston, in 1769.
James Clark came to America in 1762, from Ireland, and was on Big Sandy Creek in 1769, about one mile north of where Clifton Mills now stands. His farm is now known as the Pysel place.
An old patent issued to Judy in Monongalia County, in 1783, accompanied with an old survey, records the date of his settlement right in 1769, of a tract of land situated on the waters of Big Sandy, now a portion of the Squire Henry Smith farm about two miles from Bruceton. There is no account to show where he came from-only that he sold in after years and removed to Ohio.
The next settlement made, of which we have any account. was by Samuel Worral and his son Samuel who, in 1770, came out from Philadelphia over the old Braddock road, and by settlement right occupied and afterward paten- ted tracts of lands in "Sandy Creek Glades." Their lands are now included in the farms of Jesse Spurgin and otherr.
PRESTON UNDER AUGUSTA.
« listant about one half mile from Glade Farms P. O. Abcu? the same time, Richard Morris, Zebulon Hoge and Daniel Greathouse, came from Pennsylvania to this locality and took large tracts of land by settlement rights. Ezekiel Worley, a great sickle maker, came shortly after this and -settled close to Morris's. They all settled under the im pression that they were within the boundaries of Penn- sylvania. During this year James Walls settled on the east side of Cheat in the northern part of the county.
Settlement Rights .- Doddridge in his Notes says: "Build- ing a cabin and raising a crop of grain, however small, of any kind, entitled the occupant to four hundred acres of land, and a pre-emption right to one thousand acres more. At an early period Virginia appointed three commissioners to give certificates of settlement rights. These certificates, to gether with the surveyor's plat, were sent to the land office of the State, where they lay six months, to await any caveat which might be offered. If none was offered, the patent was then issued."
In 1771 Lord Bottetourt died, and Lord Dunmore suc- ceeded him as Governor in 1772, and this year Jacob and Martin Judy settled on Big Sandy Creek near where Clifton Mills now stands. From 1770 to 1773 the territory of Pres ton became quite famous as a hunting ground, hunters from the South Branch, Maryland and Pennsylvania scouring its hills and dales. In 1773, William, Hugh and Patrick Morgan settled on the Dunkard Bottom. on the west side of Cheat. about two miles from the dense forest, then towering with stately trees where Kingwood now stands, while Robert Butler and others settled on the east side, and the territory of Preston now began to attract the attention of a steady. reliable class of people desirous of building up homes-mak ing permanent settlements.
The Great Survey .- In this year, according to the old surveyors, commenced the survey known as the Claibourne and Moylan, or Great Survey. They ran their lines on the west side of Cheat River commencing just above where
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
Kingwood stands, and extending into the Monongalia glades near where Masontown is situated, and then embracing nearly all the lands in what is now Preston on the west side of Cheat, and extending over into what is now Tucker County. This survey embraced about 99,000 acres of land, of which about 50,000 acres were in Preston. Some tracts of lands, owned or claimed by others, were included in this great survey. They did not stop to run their lines around them, but ran on including them, and afterward if required, threw them out, as an easier task than to stop and run around them.
In 1774, the partial peace of the frontier was again broken by a general resumption of hostilities on the part of the In dians. Although the frontier line of settlement was beyond the territory of Preston, yet a feeling of insecurity possessed the few settlers and checked again the tide of immigration from the East. A discontented feeling existed in the Col- ony of Virginia, occasioned by the encroachment of England's rulers upon its rights, and the inhabitants thought more of armed resistance against the mother country, than of pushing westward to acquire lands and make new homes.
We find mention in this year of Morris's Fort, on the lands of Richard Morris, where the settlers of a portion of Wash- ington County, Pennsylvania, repaired over the old Sandy Creek road, for safety and protection. Butler's Fort. at the mouth of Roaring Creek on Cheat River, is also mentioned ; and likely both forts were erected this year. The settlers forted during the summer, but were not molested; the year passed with no Indian incursions, and 1775 came with ru- mors of war between the Colonies and England.
Seventeen hundred and seventy six found the settlers'num- bers increased by but few accessions, and still forting in ap- prehension of Indian attacks. Lord Dunmore, Governor of the Colony, who had been plotting for two years to hold Virginia in subjection to England, had retired on board a ship, and was endeavoring to wage war against the Colony by freeing the slaves of the murmuring colonists. He sent
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PRESTON UNDER AUGUSTA.
the notorious John Connelly to incite the Indians upon the frontier to renew hostilities, and to raise a regiment of To- ries in the western part of the Colony. The Colony declared that Dunmore had abdicaced by his flight, and elected Pat- rick Henry Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
We have traced the history of the territory of Preston from 1738 to 1776, as a part of that portion of the County of Augusta defined in 1776 as the District of West Augusta. We have traced its existence first as an unbroken wilderness -next its attempted settlement by the Dunkards and their anurder by the Indians, and then a pioneer period extending from the first permanent settlements in 1769 to 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence, in which year we chronicle its separation from Augusta, and make record of it as a part of Monongalia, one of the three counties into which the District of West Augusta was divided by act of the Gen- eral Assembly of Virginia.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
CHAPTER VII. PRESTON UNDER MONONGALIA.
INDIAN INCURSIONS: MORGANS ATTACKED, BRAIN SHOT. DEATH OF'
PATRICK MORGAN, MILLER'S ESCAPE, FIELDS KILLED, MARTIN WETZEL'S ADVENTURE, VIEW OF FRONTIER LIFE-A PERIOD OF IM- PROVEMENT-JACOB WETZEL'S ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS-JOHN GREENE MURDERED-WAR OF 1812-MOVEMENT FOR A. NEW COUNTY .- 1776-1818.
Br an act of the General Assembly of Virginia. in 1776. the boundaries of the district of West Augusta were defined. It extended from the western boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania to the Ohio River, comprising all of North- western Virginia, and a considerable portion of what after- wards became Pennsylvania ; while the remainder of Au gusta County beyond the Ohio became the celebrated North. West Territory, and that portion lying west of the Big Sandy River, was designated as the South West Territory. This act divided the district of West Augusta into three counties, Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia. Monongalia and Yohogania constituted a large portion of the territory in dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Mason and Dixon line of 1767 not being accepted by either as a boun. nary, and both claimed and attempted to exercise jurisdic- tion over the, controverted territory. After the estab- lishment of Mason and Dixon's line, extended in 1782, Yohogania, being nearly all in Pennsylvania, was made a part of Fayette and other counties, except a small western portion
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PRESTON UNDER MONONGALIA.
lying in Virginia and attached to Ohio County, and Yohoga- uia is known to-day as the "lost county."
By this act of Assembly, the territory of Preston became the northeastern part of Monongalia County. Thomas Chips, in 1776, settled near where Willey Post Office now is. The settlers still forted from fear of Indians led on by British emissaries and American tories. During 1777, we find traces of a few settlers coming in, and first mention of the Brains, Powels, and Dillons. The year passed with occa- sional alarms of Indians. 1778 opened with alarms of In- dians, the same as 1777 had closed. On the 11th of April, according to the Chronicles of Border Warfare, a party of Indians came to the Dunkard bottom, on the west side of Cheat, and attacked the house of Wm. Morgan, killing and scalping Morgan's mother and her grand-daughter, a Mrs. Dillon and her two small children, and a young man by the name of Brain. They took Morgan's wife and her child prisoners. They started for the Ohio, and when near Pricketts Fort, they tied Mrs. Morgan to a bush, and went to look for a horse for her to ride. While they were gone, she managed to untie her bands with her teeth, and made her escape- wandering all that day and part of the next, when she came in sight of the fort. Some of the settlers going out in a few days afterward, found at the spot where Mrs. Morgan made her escape, a fine mare stabbed to the heart by the Indians. exasperated at her escape, and thus venting their rage on the animal intended to carry their prisoner.
The descendants of William Morgan give a different ac- count of this affair. Their account is as follows: when the Indians came, William Morgan's wife was washing on the bank of the river, and her little girl playing round. came running to her and said she saw red men go to the house. Mrs. Morgan gathered up her child and ran to the field or clearing where Brain was plowing, and told him. He was so much excited that he never stopped to unhitch the tean. but cutting the traces, placed Mrs. Morgan and child on one horse, and sprang on the other. Putting the horses to their
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
full speed, they soon arrived at Butler's Fort. The Indians killed a young women at the house and left
The Indians were still dreaded, and invasions feared. OIr the anniversary of their attack on Morgan's house, five In dians came and lay in ambush round a house on Snowy Glade Creek, some two miles from Cranberry Summit. This house was occupied by James Brain and Richard Powell. Brain's home was on Brain's run, close to Newburg ; but he had moved back east, to Snowy Glade Creek for greater se- eurity, according to one account. Early on the morning of the 12th of April, 1778, ten or twelve men came out of the house, and were shooting at a mark, being travelers accord -: ing to the Border Warfare. The Indians despaired of suc- cess in attacking the house, and withdrew to a distance. The travelers, after breakfast, unbeknown to the Indians, departed ; and Brain (or Bran as some of his descendants claim his name to be,) and two of the Powells went to their work-carrying clapboards to cover or roof a cabin some distance from the house. The Indians in their conceal ment heard them, and determined to obtain a scalp, stole up on them, and shot Brain down, capturing his son Isaac.
Another of Brain's sons, Benjamin; and the two Powell boys, all small, were playing at a short distance. Little Ben Brain hearing the report of the gun, jumped on a stump, and for his mischief cried, "Run boys! Run! the Indians are coming!"
The two Powell boys. looking up. saw three Indians stealing up toward them, and quickly obeyed Ben's com- mand. Ben, standing on the stump with his back to the Indians, continued calling to the boys to run, and, laughing at the success of his joke, was not aware of the presence of the Indians till they took hold of him. Pursuing the Powell boys they soon captured one of them; but the other re mained concealed in a bunch of alders, where he had taken refuge, and they failed to discover him. The Indians · brought the three boys together. and finding that the Powell
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boy had but one eye, they tomahawked and scalped him on the spot.
They then hurriedly made inquiries of little Den Erain, as to how many men were at the house, and how far it was to the nearest fort; and with an uplifted tomahawk above his head, the little fellow answered that there were twelve men at the house, and that it was but two miles to the nearest fort, although he knew the men had all left, and that the nearest fort, Butler's, was over eight miles distant. His forethought, false in fact but true in love, saved the lives of his mother. Nancy Brain, and the other women and children at the house. The Indians, fearful of these men hearing the gun, and likely to attack them, took Ben and Isaac Brain and retreated as fast as possible toward the Ohio, their starting point.
They made great sport of little Ben, and how they had captured him ; often one of them would get up on a log and imitate Ben calling to the boys to run that the Indians were coming. They kept Ben six years, when he was given up at a treaty, and coming back, lived and died in Preston.
After he got back, he told that at some place in Ohio he became sick, and could not travel. They left one Indian behind with him; the next day the Indian sat down beside him, and inquired if he was any better. "Ben said he didn't know." The Indian took out his tomahawk, and looking at it, asked him if he thought he could ride. Little Ben knew well the meaning of the Indian's looking at his tomahawk. and although he felt too sick even to stand up yet he an- swered that he thought he could. The Indian brought up a pony, and lifting him up, put him on it.
Blind and almost fainting with pain, yet the love of life was strong within him, although but a child in a manner : and he clung to its back till they stopped for the night. The next morning he felt better, and made the journey through without further accident or incident. His brother
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
Isaac was separated from him and was never heard of afterwards.
The little Powell boy, as soon as the Indians left, ran as fast as he could to Butler's Fort, and gave the alarm. A strong force of the settlers departed for the scene of slaugh ter, and moving swiftly arrived upon the ground in a short time after the Indians had left, and followed in pursuit; but the Indians had too great a start to be overtaken. It is said the party from the fort gave Nancy Brain the first intima- tion of her husband's death ; she having heard the crack of the rifle, and supposed it was some of the travelers shooting who had left.
This murder caused the settlers to spend a good many days in the forts, apprehensive of an Indian invasion.
The prompt action of Ben Brain and the little Powell boy, resulted from the education that even children received upon the frontier. Raised amid Indians, every sense was sharp- ened, even in childhood, to protect themselves against In- dian invasions, and attacks on their cabins.
An other account is given of this murder, differing some- what from the above. Mrs. Elizabeth Jefferys says she has heard her mother, who was a daughter of Nancy Brain, tell that James Brain (or Bran) had just come from England, and was putting up a stable. He and his son were carrying clapboards and her mother, Nancy Brain, heard the clap- boards fall, and looking out, saw that they were shot. The boy, that the Indians put up on a stump and shot, she says was a bound boy and blind of an eye. With these ex- ceptions, her account agrees with the others.
During the remainder of the year, nothing of historic in- terest occurred in Monongalia, on the territory of Preston.
Virginia appointed commissionere in this year, (1779) to ineet commissioners from Pennsylvania at Baltimore, in or- der to decide the boundary line between the two Common- wealths. They decided that the Mason and Dixon line run between Maryland and Pennsylvania, should be extended 5 degrees from the river Delaware. and then run northward to
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PRESTON UNDER MONONGALIA.
the line of North Latitude, 42 degrees ; which was ratified by Pennsylvania in November, and by Virginia in June 1780. and the agreement as to this line, while it ended Pennsy! vania's claims to the territory of Preston and several adjoin ing counties, yet it gave to Pennsylvania all of Youghogania and the northern part of Monongalia County.
Up to this time the court of Monongalia had met upon the "plantation" of Theophilus Phillips some two miles from the mouth of George's Creek, where New Geneva Pennsyl- vania was since built, while a town in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was laid out by the name of Mifflintown for the county seat It is now known by the name of Wood- bridgetown, and is about six miles from the Preston County line.
By this settlement of the boundary line, the inhabitants of Cheat were no longer required to travel to the "plantation" of Theophilus Phillips, in order to attend court, but hence- forth went to Morgantown as the county-seat.
During this year an Indian expedition of 300 picked war- riors crossed the Ohio River, in two divisions of 150 each. one crossing above, and the other below Wheeling. This expedition was intended to avoid the stronger forts, lay des olate the country from the Ohio to Washington, then called Catfishtown. It proceeded but a short distance on its route after the columns united, till, becoming fearful from the ac counts of their prisoners that the whites were gathering a force at Wheeling to cut off their retreat, the chiefs held a council, and retreated after murdering a part of their prisoners.
When the lower division crossed the Ohio, scouts discov- ered it, and the alarm was spread, each settlement dreading that it might lie in the desolating line of the Indians' fiendish march of death. The settlers at Butler's and Morris's forts were greatly alarmed upon receiving the news, fearful that its track of desolation might sweep over their settlements. well knowing that their two rude stockade forts would be no defense against such a large body of savages. They were
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
highly rejoiced when the tidings came that the Indians had fallen back across the Ohio.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, again westward turned the tide of immigration, so long suspended while the Colonies were waging the war of Independence; and the territory of Preston received its share of that emigration.
Somewhere between 1778 and 1781, occurred the murder of Patrick Morgan by a scouting party of seven Indians. As handed down by descendants of the family, it appears that Morgans were either raking off a stubble or piling brush, and Patrick had a rake, and was raking. At dinner time, the rest started for the house, while Patrick lingered behind to con- plete a pile, before starting to the house for his dinner. The others had reached the house, and looking back, perceived seven Indians circling around Patrick, who was trying to fight them off and get his gun, which was standing a short distance away. The Indians appeared desirous of not shoot. ing him, and bent on his capture; but as he seemed to be on the point of reaching his gun, one of the Indians drove a tomahawk into the back of his head, and he fell dead, and was scalped by the Indians.
Upon the discovery of the Indians by those at the house, William Morgan grasped his gun, determined to join in the struggle; but Hugh Morgan and the man that was help- ing, whose name was Wildey Taylor, grabbed him and held him, fearing that a part of the force being concealed, they would lose their lives and accomplish nothing.
After killing Patrick Morgan, the Indians took down over the bank of the river, and disappeared, not seeming to have any desire to attack the house standing in plain view.
During this same period of time, a man by the name of Miller came out, and camped on Cheat about two miles back from the wooded eminence where Kingwood now stands: Awakened one night by a noise, he saw an Indian flit behind a tree, and awaking his two sons, they crawled noiselessly to the river bank but a few feet away, and reached a secure hid-
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PRESTON UNDER MONONGALIA.
ing place. The Indians came round the deserted camp-fire. but did not make any search and soon departed.
Miller left the next day, and went back to the Shenandoah. John Miller, one of his sons, but a mere boy then, came back in a few years, and took up a tract of land upon part of which Kingwood now stands.
Between the years 1776 and 1781, a man by the name of Ashcraft had a hunting camp near where Masontown stands. In these years came the Menears, and settled in the vicinity of Reedsville; the Zinns, in the neighborhood of Zinn's. now Brown's. Mill: and the Fields, in the forests not far from the present stirring little village of Gladesville.
One of the Fields, whose Christian name is not preserved. was killed and scalped during this time, by a roving party of Indians. Fields was a hunter, and had been hunting in the neighborhood of Reedsville, where his body was found at a spring, one day, by some hunters. He had been shot and scalped. The hunters supposed, from all appearances. that Fields had lain down to drink at the spring. and being dis- covered, was shot while in the act of drinking.
Lewis, Martin, George and Jacob Wetzel often stopped at Wolfe's when they were traveling in the direction of the South Branch. It was about this time that Martin. Wetzel. on his way to Wheeling, was pursued by Indians on the east side of Cheat, on the Dunkard Bottom, and his shot-pouch catching fast in a bush, and holding firmly, he had to stop to disengage himself; but before he could make a move, one of the Indians fired at him, and the ball cut off the bush and Martin continued his flight with the bush hanging to him some distance before he could stop to relieve himself, as the Indians were close upon him. He soon distanced them. after crossing Cheat. Some time afterward. coming to Jacob Wolfe's, he related this adventure, among others with the Indians.
During this period of time, the settlers came into the ter- ritory of Preston, bringing all their worldly goods out on
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